Published yesterday (updated) 05/02/2010 20:39

Gaza – Ma'an –

Member of Fatah's Central Committee Nabil Sha'ath left Gaza via the Erez crossing en route to Ramallah, following a series of meetings in the besieged costal enclave with Palestinian factional leaders and independent figures.

Before his departure, Sha'ath met with the Samouni family in the Az-Zeitoun neighborhood, who lost 27 family members during Israel's Operation Cast Lead last winter.

After meeting with a host of political leaders in Gaza, Sha'ath additionally met with the Nativity Church deportees. Spokesman for the deportees, Basem Kan'an, said that Sha'ath was given a letter intended for President Mahmoud Abbas outlining their cases, as well as those in European, who have been in exile for the last eight years.

Kan'an demanded that the Nativity Church deportees' case be brought before both Fatah's Central Committee and Revolutionary Council, and for the movement to adopt their cause on Palestinian, Arab and international levels.

Sha'ath said he would bring their case before the movement's bodies, with the aim of returning the deportees to Bethlehem.

Sha'ath had arrived in Gaza on Wednesday where he met with de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah to discuss national reconciliation with Hamas before a delegation of members from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian People's Party (PPP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as well as a number of leading independent political personalities in Gaza.

The Fatah Central Committee member further met with all five Palestinian factions on an individual level. Member of the DFLP Saleh Omer said the meeting was "positive and consultative ... aimed at finding a way out of the crisis Palestinians are living under as a result of division, and focusing on speeding up its end and prioratizing national unity above narrow factional interests."

The meetings concluded with agreeing upon the need to resume efforts to ratify the Egyptian document, and intensifying meetings between Palestinian factions to reach a comprehensive national agreement as a means to end the Israeli occupation and democratizing the Palestinian political system.

Delayed general elections across the occupied Palestinian territories have blamed on the failure to sign the reconciliation document poised to end inter-Palestinian factional rivalry. However, if the document is signed, elections could be held by June 2010.

After meeting with Haniyeh, Sha'ath said he felt hopeful that reconciliation would be achieved before the Arab Summit next convenes in Libya in March.